5 Things to Know About The Fosters 5×03 – Contact

The Fosters 5×03 featured an underground newspaper, some dubious rhyming, and more than one awkward dinner. Read on for 4 things to know about The Fosters 5×03, “Contact.”

1. Mariana is the queen of extracurriculars.

Between Dance Team, STEAM Club, and R + J: A Romeo & Juliet Tale, Mariana’s never been short on extracurricular activities – but in The Fosters 5×03, she picks up two more. First, she spearheads an underground school paper, The Sea Breeze Rise Up. The initial plan is for Mariana, Jude, Taylor, and the other kids working on the paper to get to school early and slip the first edition into people’s lockers, but there’s a problem: Drew’s installing security cameras in the hallways. Undeterred, Mariana recruits the two other members of STEAM Club who aren’t away at a robotics tournament, and they end up aerially disseminating the paper via drone. It’s a pretty awesome workaround… until the drone crashes.

After Drew sees the “Property of ABCC STEAM Club” sticker on the drone, he suspends the club indefinitely and threatens to cancel prom if another issue of the paper is released. Mariana’s co-conspirators promptly turn on her, claiming that if she hadn’t stepped back from the robotics team, she would have been voted off because nobody wanted to work with her. Determined to be part of something, Mariana signs up to join the Latina roller derby team coached by Callie’s friend Ximena – and forges Lena’s signature on the permission slip.

2. Callie and Aaron go on a lackluster date.

Spending the evening at a roller derby bout with Callie and a moody Mariana isn’t exactly what Aaron considers to be a romantic night out, so he invites Callie on a “real date.” He volunteers to plan everything, including the movie they’ll see, the food they’ll eat, and even Callie’s outfit. Needless to say, their big night ends up being an epic fail. When Aaron asks what he did wrong, Callie points out that she didn’t have a say in anything they did and explains that she doesn’t like surprises. Aaron agrees to let her know the plan in the future, and the previous night’s awkward kiss on the cheek gets upgraded in a major (and majorly adorable) way.

3. The fate of Anchor Beach (still) hangs in the balance.

The impending privatization of Anchor Beach looms large in The Fosters 5×03, just as it has in the past few episodes. This week, the board rules that since Monte never officially resigned after the off-campus LGBT sex ed controversy, she’s officially still the principal, a technicality that invalidates Drew’s vote for privatization in the season 4 finale. Monte ends up on paid leave for “other issues” with her conduct, but at least she and Lena bought some time to persuade the board members not to support the privatization.

4. Brandon isn’t over losing his spot at Juilliard.

After Brandon declines a jam session with Grace, Callie figures out that he hasn’t been playing music lately because he’s still beating himself up about the Juilliard fiasco. She implores him not to give up on music, and he goes back to Grace’s apartment to apologize in the cheesiest possible way – through song. Following a couple of dubious yet heartfelt rhymes (“Juilliard” and “hard” among them), the couple gets back on good terms. Now all Brandon needs to do is patch things up with Jesus so they can continue their music therapy lessons. Who else thinks that’s much easier said than done?

5. Dinner with the neighbors is… eventful.

Lena expands on that awkward moment at the end of last week’s episode by telling the kids that their new neighbor Tess was Stef’s first girlfriend. Not so, Stef maintains! Although she had a crush on Tess in high school, Tess was straight and didn’t reciprocate. That said, the two are soon laughing about the time they stole a car to go to an Indigo Girls concert together, so that straightness? …It’s questionable. Understandably, Lena isn’t exactly thrilled by their chemistry, and that insecurity goes from bad to worse when Tess prompts Stef to reconsider her and Lena’s joint decision not to allow Jesus to go back to school yet. Speaking of the TBI, Lena privately admits to Stef that she’s sometimes scared by Jesus’ unpredictable behavior – and of course, this being The Fosters, Jesus overhears.

About Nicola

A Pop City Life contributor since 2014, Nicola holds a degree in print and multimedia journalism from Emerson College. Raised in the UK, she has since lived in Philadelphia and Manhattan, and currently resides in Boston. She's a big fan of the Cheshire Cat.